An expansion board is a printed circuit board that plugs into an expansion slot in a computer or other electronic device. The expansion board extends the computer's ability to control another type of peripheral device. Some such expansion boards that plug into a computer's bus are expansion boards, such as display adapters, disk controllers and sound cards. Typically, the expansion boards plug into expansion slots in the motherboard of the computer. One end of an expansion board has connectors mounted thereon for receiving cables which connect the computer to the peripheral devices. Numerous types of connectors are known in the prior art. For example, keyboards typically use a five pin DIN connector, while the PS/2 connector uses a smaller six pin mini-DIN connector. The PS/2 connectors can be used either for a mouse or a keyboard depending on the design of the computer. DB connectors are widely used in communication and computer services and come in 9, 15, 25, 37 and 50 pin sizes. The pins are arranged either two or three rows on the connectors. A DB-9 connector is commonly used for the first serial port on a personal computer, which is typically connected to the mouse. A high density DB-15 connector is used for the VGA port on a personal computer and typically has fifteen pins in the same shell as the 9 pins in the DB-9 connector.
Other types of connectors are the RCA phonoconnector used for composite video, BNC connectors used for video and networking applications, F connectors for NTSC TV signals, mini-phone connectors for equipment such as headphones and speakers, and DVI connectors for video applications.
With the increase in complex circuitry on expansion boards, and with the desirability of smaller physical equipment cases for personal computers and other devices, some expansion boards use a high density connector to connect numerous peripheral devices to a computer via a single high density connector.
One prior art peripheral interconnection device has a cable with a plug on one end and a hemispherical housing on the other end with various jacks disposed on opposing sides of the housing. The jacks are commonly connected to a high density connector for interface with a computer. Indicia in the pockets indicates the proper plug/jack interface. However, such a device is symmetrically shaped such that it is difficult to easily distinguish the input jacks from the output jacks. Also, such a device has a very large footprint, yet only has a limited number and type of jacks. The hemispherical shape of the prior art device also prohibits stacking of other peripheral cable housings or other devices thereon. For example, when a plurality of high density expansion boards or other peripheral devices are used, such a device cannot share a common footprint and valuable working surface area is wasted. Also, such a device does not accommodate necessary input/output signaling.
Therefore, there is a need for a high density interconnection device that is relatively small, stackable, accommodates more input/output signaling, and intuitively informs a user of the proper interface.